Late Yuan Dynasty: I am the true emperor

Chapter 532: Pacification of Fujian
Wang Zhuan was very dissatisfied with Lian Tichen's experience as an envoy to the Ming Dynasty. The two most important things, namely, to regain control of the Shuangcheng General Administration and to retrieve his cousin, Lord Dexing, were not accomplished. Instead, Lu Jin forcibly demanded a lot of tribute.

As for the Shuangcheng General Administration, that's out of the question. Lu Jin directly used the Four Commanderies of Han as leverage, showing that if they dared to continue demanding more, the Ming Dynasty would take back the Four Commanderies of Han. The small Shuangcheng General Administration was only two counties, while the territory of the Four Commanderies of Han encompassed most of Goryeo's land. Wang Zhuan knew which was more important. It seemed that the Shuangcheng General Administration was definitely not going to be taken back.

Another matter was to reclaim his uncle, Lord Dexing. Lu Jin did not refuse outright, but he wanted Wang Zhuan to exchange his brothers or his eldest son for him. Not to mention that Wang Zhuan was only 25 years old, younger than Lu Jin, and did not have any children at all. Even if he did have a son, exchanging his son for his uncle would be the same as not exchanging at all.

Wang Zhuan didn't really want his uncle; he was just worried that the Ming Dynasty would use his uncle's status as a member of the Goryeo royal family to seize his throne. Now that Lu Jin wouldn't give it to him, he might as well let it go.

However, this mission was not all bad. Judging from Lu Jin's various demands and performance, the Ming Dynasty seemed to have no interest in Goryeo. Despite Lu Jin's tough attitude and the fact that he extorted a lot of tribute, his attitude was actually quite conservative.

There are essentially two points: First, clarify the border between the two countries. As long as Goryeo does not invade Ming territory, Ming will not have any designs on Goryeo. The two countries can use their existing territories as the boundary and refrain from infringing on each other's territory.

Second, although Lu Jin initially demanded 20,000 warhorses and 20,000 tribute women, and also requested that 6,000 horses and 100,000 catties of lead be offered as tribute every year thereafter, Lu Jin did not request Goryeo to send troops to fight alongside the Ming Dynasty in its campaigns.

In addition to demanding that Goryeo clearly join the Ming Dynasty in expressing its stance against the Yuan Dynasty, Lu Jin had no intention of interfering in the Goryeo court.

Judging from these three points alone, the Ming Dynasty under Lu Jin was far stronger than the Mongol Yuan Dynasty!
Look at how the Mongol Yuan Dynasty treated Goryeo. Not only did the Mongol Yuan Dynasty covet Goryeo's territory and attack it nine times, but they also wanted to establish the Zhengdong Province in Goryeo's territory and send officials there.

At the same time, the Mongols also dragged Goryeo into war, forcing Goryeo to pay blood taxes. This started as early as when the Mongols destroyed the Song Dynasty. In the Battle of Xiangyang and the Battle of Yamen, Goryeo sent troops to fight. Later, they even followed the Yuan army to fight Annam, Burma, Japan, and the Red Turban Army.

As a result, Japan not only failed to conquer the enemy, but also got itself into trouble, with Japanese pirates now blocking its doorstep every day.
It could even be said that as long as the Yuan army was at war, there was almost never a time when Goryeo did not send troops. In comparison, Lu Jin only asked them to produce 100,000 catties of lead every year, which was nothing compared to the Yuan Dynasty.

As for court politics, Lu Jin only asked them to choose sides, completely sever ties with the Mongol Yuan dynasty, and thoroughly purge the pro-Yuan faction within the country. He didn't ask for anything else. On the other hand, the Yuan dynasty supported the pro-Yuan faction and manipulated the Goryeo court, forcibly replacing the Goryeo king at the slightest disagreement.

Compared to the Mongols, Lu Jin suddenly looked kind and gentle, and all Lu Jin could say was that it was all thanks to the contrast with his peers.
What was Goryeo most afraid of? Of course, it was the fear that the newly established Ming Dynasty would become like the Mongol Yuan Dynasty.

However, this time they had misunderstood Lu Jin. It wasn't that Lu Jin didn't have designs on Goryeo; it's just that they didn't understand Lu Jin's character. He was the kind of person who either wouldn't act at all, or once he did, he would completely destroy his opponent and leave no future trouble.

The current show of disinterest in Goryeo is merely a way to lull them into a false sense of security. Besides, now is not the time to attack Goryeo; we should wait at least a few years, until the navy is of a certain size and the country has recovered somewhat.

For the Ming Dynasty, defeating a country like Goryeo with a population of six million once or twice was easy, but completely annihilating the country, swallowing all its territory, and ensuring no future troubles were all that was a technical task that required careful consideration.

This is different from the anti-Yuan movement. No matter how strong the Yuan Dynasty was, its main population was still Han Chinese. Lu Jin only needed to win military battles and didn't have to worry about assimilation. That's the difference.

After some self-consolation, the Goryeo king and his ministers accepted Lu Jin's various harsh demands, and repeatedly emphasized to themselves that although this Ming emperor was not a decent human being, he was still much better than the previous Yuan dynasty, wasn't he?

Two days after the delegation landed in Gaegyeong, King Jeon officially convened a court assembly and, in front of the chief envoy Luo Ben, announced the abolition of Queen Botashiri's position and her exile to Ganghwa Island.

Ganghwa Island is actually not far from Gaegyeong, and it was a common place for Goryeo to exile political prisoners. It wasn't that they suffered a lot, but they could basically never come back in this lifetime. It can be considered that Wang Jeon gave his former wife some face in the end. After all, the Yuan Dynasty was defeated, so it really can't be blamed on him.

Afterwards, Wang Zhuan specially hosted a banquet for the Ming delegation, and then fasted and bathed for three days before formally receiving the investiture from the Ming Dynasty in the court. However, this time Luo Ben stood on top, while Wang Zhuan led a group of Goryeo civil and military officials to kneel below to receive the decree.

The imperial edict first praised Goryeo for realizing its mistakes and repenting, and for its determination to fight against the Yuan Dynasty alongside the Ming Dynasty. It also clarified that Goryeo was willing to acknowledge the Ming Dynasty as its suzerain and serve as its vassal state in the East China Sea. From then on, the Ming Dynasty and Goryeo were to become father and son countries.

Lu Jin conferred upon Wang Zhuan the title of King of Goryeo, granting him the rank of Prince, the rank of Grand Master of the Three Departments, a gold seal, a ceremonial robe and a python robe, and a copy of the Great Ming Calendar. From this day forward, Goryeo would use the same Gregorian calendar as the Ming Dynasty.

Other miscellaneous gifts included brocade, porcelain, folding fans, round fans, ivory, agarwood, lacquerware, and stationery such as writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. These were all luxury items with little practical value, and of course, they couldn't compare to the 20,000 warhorses, 100,000 catties of lead, and 20,000 tribute women that Goryeo had offered as tribute.

After Wang Zhuan received the imperial decree and expressed his gratitude, the investiture ceremony came to an end.

Afterwards, Wang Zhuan naturally hosted another banquet for Robben and his delegation. However, Robben urged him to make Goryeo gather the tribute as soon as possible and not to take it lightly. He would not stay in Goryeo for long. Before leaving, he had to take some of the tribute back with him to report to His Majesty the Emperor. The remaining tribute also had to be delivered by the end of the year.

Wang Zhuan and his men naturally dared not neglect their duties and immediately ordered the collection of tribute items.

In a short time, Goryeo cavalrymen went out in all directions, driving away the refugees and disaster victims, announcing that the court would soon provide disaster relief and distribute land. Civil officials also took the opportunity to post announcements in various places.

The land previously confiscated from the homes of the Qi, Lu, and Quan families, who were close to the Yuan dynasty, was distributed by the court to displaced people at a cost of half-selling and half-giving. Anyone willing to sell their daughter to the government could obtain thirty acres of land.

Some disaster victims wanted to receive land, but they also questioned the court's intentions in conscripting so many women. The Goryeo government explained to the people that these women were to be married to soldiers. As for which soldiers they were from and how far away they would be married, there was no need to explain that to them.

In doing so, they actually managed to acquire quite a few women, which not only resolved the trouble caused by the pro-Yuan faction's forced seizure of farmland and land annexation, but also resettled the wandering disaster victims, and incidentally completed the task of collecting tribute for the Ming Dynasty.

What? You're asking what to do if you don't have a daughter?
Those without daughters are just pure laborers, isn't that better? There's no need to divide up land anyway; just send them straight to the lead mines. The King has given you a job and even provided you with food. Hurry up and thank the King!
This series of clever maneuvers resolved everything: land consolidation, widespread refugees, the demand for 20,000 tribute women, and 100,000 catties of lead. It not only fulfilled the task of collecting tribute items but also solved domestic problems.

Of course, 20,000 warhorses couldn't be left out, but it would be really difficult for Goryeo to gather them in a short time. So they agreed to let Luo Ben take 12,000 warhorses and 10,000 tribute women in the first batch. The remaining tribute women and warhorses would be transferred to Liaodong by August of this year, and the Ming Dynasty would prepare people to receive them.

In addition, there are 100,000 catties of lead. We were not prepared for this and there is no readily available lead. We can only start mining it now. However, Goryeo has promised to deliver the full amount by the end of this year.

And so it wasn't until May 20th, after staying in Goryeo for nearly a month, that Robben, with a large number of warhorses and tribute women, was escorted by Goryeo troops to the Yalu River border in Liaodong.

At the same time, while the investiture mission from Goryeo went relatively smoothly, the battle in Fujian could only be described as unexpected.

The war in Fujian wasn't particularly troublesome, but as the army advanced, events unfolded somewhat differently from Lu Jin's memory. However, this was entirely Lu Jin's own fault. Lu Jin did remember the Yisiba Xi rebellion that occurred in Fujian at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, whose leader, Na Wuna, occupied Fuzhou, Xinghua, Quanzhou, and other places, massacring large numbers of Han Chinese.

There was also the subsequent struggle between Chen Youding and the Yisibaxi army. In the end, Chen Youding defeated the Yisibaxi army and slaughtered these Semu people. Zhu Yuanzhang then took advantage of this, and by the time Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming army marched into Fujian, the ten-year Yisibaxi rebellion had long ended, and Chen Youding had become the largest warlord in Fujian.

Lu Jin remembered the event correctly, but he got the timing wrong.
Historically, the Yisibaxi Army was indeed established very early. Starting in 1351 when the Red Turban Rebellion began, a large number of 'righteous militias' emerged in various places under the banner of helping the Yuan court suppress the Red Turban Rebellion. The Yisibaxi Army was also established at that time, but at this stage, the Yisibaxi Army was actually relatively obedient.

What Lu Jin didn't know was that this Yisiba Xi army had actually gone through three leaders: Saifuddin, Amiriddin, and Nawuna.

This militia organization became active in 1357. From 1357 to 1366, the Yisibaxi Army, under the command of Saifuddin and Amiriddin, initially only occupied Quanzhou. Later, they intervened in the power struggle in Xinghua Road and fought with Chen Youding, but did not take any extreme actions.

It wasn't until Nawna seized power in a coup in 1366 that he began to expand his territory, successively conquering places like Fuzhou and carrying out bloody atrocities.

The change in the behavior of the Yisiba Xi army was also related to the political struggle between the imperial party and the crown prince party in Dadu.

However, in this timeline, before Hama could formally launch a coup and support Ayushiridara to the throne, Lu Jin launched a northern expedition and destroyed the Yuan Dynasty, so the subsequent struggle between the Emperor's Party and the Crown Prince's Party naturally ceased.

And it's only 1355 now, two years before the Yisiba Xi army occupied Quanzhou in history.

Chen Youding, the warlord who once dominated Fujian, has only recently enlisted in the army and has only fought against a few local rebel strongholds in Fujian. He was promoted to magistrate of Qingliu County for his merits. In the end, he is just a nobody and is far from being able to stir up trouble.

At this point in time, the person actually in charge of power in Fujian is still Puhua Temur, who was appointed by the Yuan court as the Pingzhang of Fujian Province.

But for Puhua Timur, the current situation is nothing more than a mess.

Although Fujian is located in a mountainous area with relatively poor transportation, it is not true that no news can get in at all. Lu Jin proclaimed himself emperor in Jiankang, established the Ming Dynasty, pacified the Central Plains, and launched a northern expedition to recover Yan and Yun. The Yuan emperor, empress, and crown prince were all captured by the Ming army in Dadu.

The news that the Crown Prince and Empress were killed, and that Lu Jin had bestowed upon Xiao Tieguo the title of Marquis of Hunde, was hearsay. However, such a major event as the destruction of the Yuan Dynasty would not have been widely known if it were not true.

More importantly, Fang Guozhen, who occupied the Taizhou and Wenzhou areas to their north, is said to have also submitted to the Ming Dynasty. If the news of the Yuan Dynasty's destruction is not true, given Fang Guozhen's temperament, there would be no need for him to do so.

Once they confirmed this information, things became complicated. The Ming army had already pacified most of the country, even taking back Yanyun and Liaodong. The Yuan emperor had also been captured alive and became a prisoner of the Ming Dynasty. It was obvious to anyone with a brain where the Ming army would attack next.

As news of the fall of the Yuan Dynasty gradually spread in Fujian, some people inevitably developed different thoughts. For example, Cai Gong'an, the judge of Tingzhou Prefecture who personally recruited Chen Youding into his ranks, was a Han Chinese. Now that the Yuan Dynasty was destroyed, why should he continue down the same path and be buried with the already destroyed Yuan Dynasty?
Not only did Cai Gong'an himself not intend to resist, he also wrote a letter to Chen Youding, who was already the magistrate of Qingliu County, urging him not to resist the Ming army so that he could save his life.

There was also Luo Liang, the commander of Zhangzhou Road. He was also of Han Chinese origin. The Yuan Dynasty had already been destroyed, and the new dynasty was still a Han Chinese dynasty. Moreover, it only took one Northern Expedition to recover Yan and Yun and even captured the Tartar emperor alive. He claimed that he would carry out the expulsion of the Tartars to the end. The new dynasty was so powerful that he was sure he could not defeat it. So why should he go and die with the Tartars?
Now that the Ming army is about to attack, Fujian Pingzhang Puhua Temur is gathering troops everywhere, preparing for a decisive battle with the Ming army. However, Luo Liang of Zhangzhou, Cai Gong'an of Tingzhou, Chen Youding of Qingliu, Chen Ruisun, the Pacification Commissioner of Fuqing, Kong Kai, the Magistrate of Chong'an County, and others are all making excuses to shirk their duties. Not a single soldier is sending out. Puhua Temur doesn't need to guess what these people are up to.

It's simply that morale has collapsed and the team is difficult to lead.

However, Lu Jin never took the initiative to persuade him to surrender, and there were rumors that this Ming emperor hated the Tartars extremely, and that most of the Mongol officials and Semu people who fell into his hands did not have a good ending. Naturally, he did not dare to surrender to the Ming Dynasty easily.

So, left with no other choice, Puhua Timur could only lead the relatively loyal Isibashi army, composed of Persians, along with some of his own troops, barely managing to muster 30,000 men, to Fu'an to meet the Ming army. This saved the Ming army a lot of trouble.

Zhu Liangzu personally led the way, bypassing Wuyi Mountain, and their first stop was the city of Pucheng. Without a single battle, the four cities of Pucheng, Chong'an, Songxi, and Jianyang surrendered directly. Jian'ou, the capital of Jianning Road, had originally wanted to wait and see, but upon seeing this situation, it also immediately surrendered. Zhu Liangzu recovered the Jianning Road without lifting a single finger.

Afterwards, Zhu Liangzu led half of the main force of the Second Front Army, along with some newly surrendered Fujian soldiers, to continue advancing towards Nanping, the capital of Yanping Road. However, they were only halfway there when Cai Gong'an of Shaowu Road and Tingzhou Road, and Luo Liang of Zhangzhou Road, led their troops to surrender one after another. Half of Fujian surrendered on the spot.

However, the garrison commander of Nanping was stubborn and unyielding. He was a Mongol and knew that surrendering would not end well. But his soldiers did not think so. In the end, although the garrison commander was determined to defend the city and fight the enemy, the Han soldiers under his command opened the city gates on their own initiative and welcomed the royal army into the city. Nanping was easily captured.

Unable to bear the humiliation, the defending general finally committed suicide by cutting his throat.

After Nanping, the capital of Yanping Road, was captured, other cities naturally dared not resist and surrendered one after another.

In this way, Zhu Liangzu recovered most of Fujian without much effort.

Feng Sheng's group, however, encountered Puhua Timur's main force of 30,000 Fujian Yuan troops, and the fighting was slightly more 'intense'.

Feng Sheng first traveled from Chuzhou to Wenzhou, and then advanced southward along the coastal plains from Wenzhou, where he encountered Puhua Timur. The two sides set up their formations and engaged in open battle under the walls of Fu'an City.

Although the artillery regiment commanded by Yu Tongyuan, the supervising officer of the Eighth Imperial Guard Division, had allocated dozens of cannons to Zhu Liangzu and Liao Yongzhong, he still had more than eighty heavy cannons of his own. He brought them down to the city walls and unleashed a fierce barrage on the Ispah army square in the enemy's formation. The remaining Han soldiers who were not hit scattered and fled for their lives on the spot, and the Ispah army, composed of Persians, also suffered heavy casualties.

Feng Sheng immediately commanded the main infantry to charge forward. Under the barrage of musket fire, grenades, and the charge of the large gun formation, the Yisibaxi army was quickly wiped out. Puhua Timur, the Pingzhang of Fujian Province, also committed suicide after the defeat, unwilling to be captured and humiliated.

Upon seeing this, the remaining Yuan troops in Fu'an immediately opened the city gates and surrendered. Soon after, almost the entire Fuzhou region surrendered without resistance. No further fighting occurred until Feng Sheng led his main force to the gates of Fuzhou.

At the same time, Liao Yongzhong led a detachment of three divisions, which, along with Fang Guozhen's navy, descended from the sky and landed suddenly in Quanzhou.

Quanzhou, located at the 'rear' of the battle line, was unprepared and easily captured by Liao Yongzhong's surprise attack. Once Quanzhou fell, surrounding areas such as Jinjiang, Nan'an, and Anxi surrendered without resistance. Thus, all seven routes of Fujian were submitted to the Ming Dynasty, with only the task of slowly eliminating religious groups remaining.

(End of this chapter)